Cards fall in season opener to Mattawan, 34-0

Coldwater ran into a stout Mattawan Wildcat team on Friday, falling in their season opener 34-0.

Mattawan struck first in the first quarter with a 67-yard run by Trevor Sweeney with 1:33 left in the quarter. In the second quarter at the 6:19 mark, Mattawan scored with a 45-yard plunge by Trevor Sweeney, making the score 14-0 in favor of Mattawan.

Nearing the end of the first half, Mattawan scored again, with a 55-yard keeper from Austin Collison; the PAT was good; making it 21-0 at the half.

In the third quarter Mattawan scored, but this time in the air. A costly interception by Adam Sims gave Mattawan nice field possession. A 25-yard strike from Ryan Payerle to Hunter Anthony capped off another successful drive. Score now, was in favor of Mattawan 27-0.

In the fourth, Mattawan capped off their scoring for the night, along with the final score of the game—A 38-yard touchdown run by Kyle Hedden with 3:40 left in the fourth quarter did the trick.

Coldwater gained 178 total yards on the night, with 107 on the ground and 71 through the air. Leading the ground impound was Zach DeMeester, 10 carries for 44 yards; Cooper Murphy had nine carries for 43 yards to roundup the Cardinals' major contribution on the ground. Through the air, Senior quarterback Ryan Hadley was 5 of 11 for 71 yards and an interception. Although the score seemed one-sided, Schorfhaar believed it was not indicative of the high-level of the play the Cardinal men were at all night.

"We honestly didn't play bad,” said Schorfhaar. “It was 21-0 on three big plays."

Schorfhaar insisted, that the turning point in the game was when the Cardinals' were pushing on their own doorsteps.

"The fumble made a big difference in the outcome,” he said “If we come out with a score in that position, the score would be 14-7, not 21-0."

All-in-all, Schorfhaar was impressed.

"We never gave up,” he said. “In fact, we played really well. This week was a tremendous improvement from a week ago. We still need to work with our youth; It showed a little tonight."

This week, the Cardinals, 0-1 will play Niles next Thursday, who beat Gull Lake, 41-18.

In JV action on Thursday night, Coldwater topped Mattawan to open the season, 44-32. Kollin Wark threw a pair of touchdown passes to Sawer Murphy, who also added a touchdown run and a two-point conversion. Preston Sours led the Cardinals on the ground with 127 yards on 20 carries and two scores to go with a two-point conversion. Grant Yearling added 74 yards on six carries and Spencer Burns had 71 yards on 13 touches. Brendan Spangler led Coldwater with 10 tackles and Luke Beckhusen and Wark added eight tackles and an interception each.